Four years of fighting.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Coffin, Charles Carleton, 1823-1896.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Coffin, Charles Carleton, 1823-1896.

Coffin, Charles Carleton.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Campaigns.

United States.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Personal narratives.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (586 p.)

Place of Publication:

Scituate, Mass. : Digital Scanning, 2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

FOUR YEARS OF FIGHTING is Charles Coffin's engrossing account of his eyewitness experiences as an Army War Correspondent during the Civil War, from the first battle at Bull Run to the fall of Richmond. Coffin was in Savannah soon after its occupation by Sherman on his great 'March to the Sea'.

Contents:

Intro

FOUR YEARS OF FIGHTING

PREFATORY NOTE.

ILLUSTRATIONS .

PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR ON STEEL,

SHILOH CHURCH,

MISSISSIPPI SCHOOL-HOUSE,

ANTIETAM,

SHERMAN' S BUMMERS,

NIGHT-SCENE IN CHARLESTON,

HUMILIATION OF RICHMOND,

PRESIDENT LINCOLN IN RICHMOND,

PLANS OF BATTLES.

FREDERICKSBURG,

FRANKLIN'S ATTACK,

CHANCELLORSVILLE,

SEDGWICK'S ATTACK,

SALEM CHURCH,

ADVANCE TO GETTYSBURG,

WILDERNESS,

SPOTTSYLVANIA,

NORTH ANNA,

COLD HARBOR,

PETERSBURG, JULY 17, 1864,

PETERSBURG, JULY 30, 1864,

MUSIC .

ROLL JORDAN,

FREEDMAN' S BATTLE-HYMN,

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

BEGINNING OF THE CONFLICT.

Ideas and Principles.

Battles witnessed.

The Leaders.

State of Affairs.

Baltimore.

Dulness in the Streets.

Baltimore Women.

Raw Troops.

Visit to Fort McHenry.

Washington.

Material of the Army.

Generals in Command.

General Scott.

His Position.

Newspaper Reports.

Troops organized.

The Gathering of the Rebels.

CHAPTER I.

AROUND WASHINGTON.

Alexandria.

The Massachusetts Fifth.

A Song for Bunker Hill.

The Review.

The Distant Gun.

The Affair at Vienna.

A Dinner in the Field.

Vallandigham and the Ohio Boys.

Patriotism of the Soldiers.

The Rogues' March.

Mutiny of the Garibaldi Guard.

An Adventure.

Broken English.

Unpleasant Position.

General Mansfield's Wrath.

The Lager-Beer Business.

A Faded Aristocracy.

Living on a Name.

The Sirens of Virginia.

A South Carolina Chattel.

His Search for Chickens.

How he found Freedom

CHAPTER II

BULL RUN.

The March.

The Second Maine.

The Pageant.

The Bivouac.

The Beehives.

Beauregard's Proclamation.

McDowell's Order.

The Contrast.

Virginia Unionism.

The First Shot.

The Artillery.

Retreat of the Rebels.

The Negro's Story.

Centreville.

Snuff Dippers.

Affairs at Blackburn's Ford.

The Morning.

Progress of the Battle.

The Rebel Prisoner.

The Turning of the Tide.

At the Spring.

The Panic.

The Teamsters.

The Rebels on the Point of Retreating

Richmond Dispatch.

Wonderful Stories of the Rebels.

Change of Sentiment.

General Butler.

Union Men of Virginia.

Bitterness of the Rebels.

Seductive Influences of Slavery .

CHAPTER III.

THE FALL OF 1861.

Position of Affairs.

Disaster at Ball's Bluff.

The News in Washington.

How President Lincoln received it.

His tenderness of Heart.

Mr. Lincoln in his Springfield Home.

His Temperance Principles.

Poolsville.

Colonel Baker's Body.

Slavery in Western Maryland.

Visit to Eastern Maryland.

The "White Horse."

Character of the Country.

Our Host at Pamunkey.

His Family.

Visit to Annapolis.

Aristocratic Pride.

Secession in Washington.

The Spirit of Slavery in the Army.

The Hutchinson Family and General McClellan.

Whittier's "Eine feste Burg ist unser Gott."

Major Gould and his Scout.

A Rebel Minister.

Washington Jail and its Inmates.

Close of the Year

CHAPTER IV.

AFFAIRS IN THE WEST.

Louisville.

Position of Kentucky.

The Opinions of a Loyal Tennesseean.

General Buell and his Policy.

Events in Missouri.

General Halleck.

Order No. 3.

General Schofield and the Guerillas.

Negro Testimony.

Fremont's Army.

Visit to Rolla.

General Sigel.

Radical Sentiments of the Army.

Cairo.

Union Generals.

Introduction to General Grant.

Commodore Foote.

The Mississippi Flotilla.

Captain Porter and the Essex.

His Challenge to Captain Montgomery.

Major-General Bishop Polk.

Reconnoissance towards Columbus.

A Kentucky Farm-house.

Return to Cairo

CHAPTER V.

CENTRAL KENTUCKY.

Battle of Mill Springs.

A genuine Kentuckian.

Discussion of the Negro Question.

Kentucky Farmers.

Lexington.

Scenes at the Phenix Hotel.

Secession Ladies.

Anthony Trollope.

Tomb of Henry Clay.

Clay's Opinion of Abolitionists.

How a Presbyterian Minister would conduct the War.

Buell's Right Wing.

Trip down the Ohio.

Passengers on Board the Grey Eagle.

The People of Owensborough.

Up Green River.

Kentucky Unionists.

Visit to Calhoun.

A "first-class" Hotel.

Scenes on the Steamer

CHAPTER VI.

THE OPENING OF THE CAMPAIGN IN TENNESSEE.

Capture of Fort Henry.

Commodore Foote's Account of the Fight.

His Care for the Wounded.

His Preaching on Sunday.

Affairs in Mississippi.

Capture of Fort Donelson.

Movement of the Troops.

The Surrender.

The Appearance of the Rebels.

The Town of Dover.

Scenes in the Rebel Lines.

The formal Surrender of the Fort.

Appearance of Buckner and Grant.

Rebel Officers on the Rampage.

Commodore Foote's Intentions.

His Plans frustrated by Halleck.

Nullification of Order No. 3.

Occupation of Columbus.

The Southern Muse.

Bombardment of Island No. 10.

Colonel Bissell's Canal.

Passage of Transports to New Madrid.

Running past the Batteries.

General Pope's Operations.

Capture of Rebels.

Surrender of Island No.10

CHAPTER VII.

PITTSBURG LANDING, FORT PILLOW, AND MEMPHIS.

The Opposing Forces.

The Battle-Field.

The Poor Whites of the South.

General Sherman.

Beauregard's Despatch.

Retreat of the Rebels.

Halleck's Advance upon Corinth.

The Mississippi Fleet.

Admiral Davis.

Captain Maynadier.

A Trap for the Rebels.

Movement of the Rams.

Fire of the Rebel Batteries.

Evacuation of Fort Pillow.

Gunboat Fight at Memphis.

Surrender of the City.

Commodore Ellet

CHAPTER VIII.

INVASION OF MARYLAND.

Battle of Manassas.

Colonel Broadhead.

Confidence of the Rebels.

Uprising in Pennsylvania.

Surrender of Harper's Ferry.

Escape of the Union Cavalry.

Negro Teamsters.

Excitement of the Citizens.

Hagerstown.

Antietam.

Visit to the Right Wing.

Poffenberg's House.

Sumner's Movement.

The Corn-Field.

Burnside's Attack.

The Fight at the Bridge

CHAPTER IX.

INVASION OF KENTUCKY.

Bragg's Advance.

Capture of Frankfort.

The Rebels in Lexington.

Inauguration of Governor Harris.

Bragg's Retreat from Frankfort.

Battle of Perryville.

President's Proclamation.

The Kentucky Policy.

General Gillmore's Order No. 5.

Twenty-Second Wisconsin and Colonel Utley.

Judge Robertson and his Boy Jo.

The Kentucky Policy reversed.

An Evening in Louisville

CHAPTER X.

FROM HARPER'S FERRY TO FREDERICKSBURG.

Soldiers' Pets.

Removal of McClellan.

Burnside's Plans.

Army Correspondence.

Gold Speculators.

Expectations of the People

CHAPTER XI.

BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG.

The Signal Guns.

Laying the Pontoons.

Bombardment of the City.

Hall's Brigade.

Rebel Sharpshooters.

Crossing the River.

Seventh Michigan.

Yankees in Fredericksburg.

Night Scene.

The Drummer-Boy.

Rev. Arthur B. Fuller.

His Funeral Obsequies.

Lee's Army.

Positions of the Troops.

Burnside's Orders to Franklin.

Movement of the Army.

Attack on the Left.

Franklin's Despatches.

Meade's Attack.

Jackson's Line broken.

Franklin's Account.

Wounded Soldiers.

Attack on the Right.

Eleventh New Hampshire.

Sturgis's Division.

The Last Attack.

Recrossing the River

CHAPTER XII.

THE WINTER AT FALMOUTH.

Employment of the Men.

American Tract Society.

General Howard and the Secessionists.

Sanitary and Christian Commissions.

Religion in the Army.

Chapels

CHAPTER XIII.

CHANCELLORSVILLE.

General Hooker in Command.

Reorganization of the Army.

Hooker's Plan.

First and Sixth Corps.

Lee puzzled.

Hooker in Position.

Lee's Movement.

Jackson's March.

Howard's Position.

Sickles's Advance.

Jackson's Attack.

The Eleventh Corps.

Sickles's Return.

Death of Jackson.

The Battle of Sunday.

Best's Artillery.

Stewart's Attack.

The Second Corps.

Hooker's last Position.

Second Battle of Fredericksburg.

Sedgwick's Attack.

Maryee's Hill.

Barksdale's Retreat.

Battle of Salem Church..

Lost Opportunity

CHAPTER XIV.

CAVALRY OPERATIONS.

Stoneman's Preparations.

Crossing the Rapidan.

Raid through Virginia.

Kilpatrick's Audacity.

Shelling Richmond.

His Escape.

Stoneman's Return

CHAPTER XV.

THE ATLANTIC COAST.

Port Royal.

Sunday Services.

Rev. Mr. Murchison.

Visit to the Plantations.

Sancho's Address.

Negro Music.

Mitchelville.

Sojourner Truth.

Enlistment of Negro Troops.

Colonel Higginson.

Antipathy of White Soldiers.

First South Carolina Regiment.

Smith's Plantation

CHAPTER XVI.

THE IRON-CLADS IN ACTION.

Destruction of the Nashville.

Captain Worden.

Attack on Fort McAllister.

First Bombardment of Sumter.

Visit to the Fleet.

Captain Rodgers.

Damage to the Fort

CHAPTER XVII.

THE INVASION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

General Lee's Movements.

Hooker on the Watch.

Bedlam in Pennsylvania.

Harrisburg.

Colored Population.

Resignation of General Hooker.

General Meade.

Feelings of the Soldiers.

Notes:

Originally published: Four years of fighting: a volume of personal observation with the army and navy, from the first battle of Bull Run to the fall of Richmond. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1866.

ISBN:

1-58218-304-X

OCLC:

70742121